“It was almost apocalyptic,” recalls retained firefighter Matt O’Hare, as he describes the scene that greeted him at the devastating wildfire in the New Forest. Fire spread from a blazing van on the A31 on 9 August, destroying ancient oak and beech trees, rare heathland and wildlife across an area of more than 100 hectares. O’Hare, 27, was sent with crewmates from Fordingbridge Fire Station. “As we went through the New Forest, we could see the huge smoke plume and we thought, ‘This is big’,” he said.
“It was really weird. You had all the cars that had been stopped on the A31 parked up either side, people in the road. “Just trying to get through to the incident was our first challenge.” As the wind rapidly swept the flames across the forest, O’Hare and his colleagues went towards the fire. “At that time, we were going, ‘How on earth are we going to stop this?’ But we were told where to go by senior officers and you just sort of deal with the area that you are in as best as you can,” he said.
A major incident was declared, and fire crews from neighbouring counties and beyond helped tackle the fire. About 130 firefighters were on the scene of the fire at the peak of the incident, working in heatwave conditions. It would be two weeks before the last crews were able to leave the scene. Like many retained firefighters, O’Hare has another job that he needed to keep up alongside his firefighting duties.
“I was doing 10-to-12-hour shifts on the A31, then coming home early in the morning and working from 08:00 to 18:00 at my manufacturing job. “But everyone does it because they love it.” Watch manager at Fordingbridge Fire Station Shaun Lincoln, 59, said it was the largest fire he had been to in 21 years as a firefighter. “It was off the scale, very, very tiring. I think adrenaline keeps you going and community spirit,” he said.
“We live in the New Forest, it’s quite personal to us, we wanted to get there and do our bit.” Thank you cards are displayed on the front door of Fordingbridge Fire Station. Lincoln said all the crew had been touched by the gratitude shown by local people, who clapped as they returned from fighting the fire. “There were hampers, cakes and hydration drinks. It was really, really nice, a little bit of fuel for the guys coming back from a long shift,” he said.
“I am really, really proud. Everyone worked their socks off, day in, day out. The guys just didn’t stop from day one to the end.” Do you have a story BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight should cover? You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, external, X (Twitter), external, or Instagram, external.
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